Alex Kurtzman & Akiva Goldsman on Making DISCOVERY Contemporary

Thanks to all of you for hanging with us this past week as we’ve been covering all things Star Trek: Discovery at San Diego Comic-Con! Today we’ve got our final interview from the Discovery press event, with series executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman.

TrekCore contributor Sam Darragh of the Trekkie Girls was our roving reporter at Saturday’s press junket, and she met up with the pair of producers to get their take on staying true to Star Trek‘s legacy but updating the series for modern times.

TREKCORE: My question is, how much of producing “Star Trek: Discovery” has been a balancing act between the desire of fans, the network requirements — and the perceived will its creator, Gene Roddenberry?

KURTZMAN: I think we’re very in sync about staying consistent with Roddenberry’s vision, and I think everyone also recognizes that in order to make show relevant, it has to exist in a world in which television and film, the line between the two has become very blurred.

So, from a production point of view, the demands of the network have been, ‘Let’s make it worth the money.’ And I mean, the money I mean, worth the [subscription] money that people spend to watch the show. And no one has ever questioned the core of what “Trek” needs to be.

So it’s not like we got some notes that the studio is asking us to do that is fundamentally changing the nature of what “Star Trek” is.

So, we are, in a weird way, our own biggest police – and the debates that we have in the room and with each other about what’s right for “Trek” and what “Trek” means is… in a way, we’re harsher on each other, probably, than anybody else.

GOLDSMAN: I think what Alex said is entirely true. We are constantly alive in our process, our ability to tell stories that are REALLY “Star Trek” and also do it in a way that is contemporary and reflective of what we’re going through today – both culturally and politically.

It’s a great opportunity for us, as we’re big fans, and we delight in the chance not to screw it up! (Laughs)

Keep coming back to TrekCore as we approach Star Trek: Discovery‘s debut September 24.